Amplify: For the good of the sport, the Canadian women’s soccer team deserves better

This is Amplify’s weekly newsletter, where you can be inspired and challenged by the voices, opinions and insights of women at The Globe and Mail and our contributor community. This week’s newsletter is written by Sheema Khan, author of Of hockey and hijab.

The Canada women’s national soccer team is likely to be making a lot of headlines these days. We are less than six months away from the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 in Australia and New Zealand. And the women’s team, which finished sixth in the world and won Olympic gold in Tokyo in 2020, is looking to improve on their fifth-place finish at the 2019 World Cup in France.

There is so much to look forward to but Canada Soccer has decided to go down the buzzkill route and announced two weeks ago that it would offer our women’s team less compensation than the men’s team ahead of the FIFA Men’s World Cup 2022. The situation is so dire that these women, who basically have football in their blood, are willing to retire from the sport entirely in the name of basic fairness. When the business of the game interferes with the love of the game, we all lose.

Football isn’t called “the beautiful game” for nothing. As a kid transplanted to Montreal from India, I adopted hockey as my first love given the hockey-crazy atmosphere of Montreal in the 1970’s. But in high school, I started playing organized football as a left-footed forward because I was left-footed by nature. There was nothing more exciting than taking a pass, scribbling past a defender, and then scoring a smash into the top corner of the net. Finally, I also played a few games with the McGill University collegiate women’s team as a walk-on. I loved the “dancing” with the ball, the team camaraderie, the thrill of scoring goals. I was fortunate to avoid major injuries, although I was once hit in the face by a hard shot at close range and shattered my glasses. (Hello, contact lenses!)

During my early soccer years, my Montreal neighborhood of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce established a girls’ soccer program. They were looking for volunteer coaches and I jumped at the opportunity even though I had no coaching experience. Soon I was coaching groups of nine, 10 and 11 year old girls, all wide-eyed and eager, with super supportive parents. I liked it so much that during my undergraduate studies I became an accredited football coach with the Football Canada Association. I had a passion for the game and I wanted to share that with these young players. It wasn’t just about tactics, goals or playmaking. I reminded them that we were out there to have fun, work hard and play fair. However, that first season as a coach was tough, with only one or two wins.

The following year, as the girls’ play and confidence improved, I set some ground rules: work hard, treat each other with respect, and as a courtesy to your teammates, let me know if you can’t come to practice. We had one player who was a notch above the rest and she knew it. Sometimes she missed training without notice.

As we neared the playoffs, I reminded the girls how important it was to respect our team principles. The “Star” player didn’t show up for our last practice session before the most important game of the season. When she showed up on game day, I benched her. yes we needed them But I made a promise to the players: you invest your time and you get rewarded. She foamed on the bench in the first half; I played her in the second. We lost the game by one goal. Her angry father called me names and threatened to sue the club. I stood firm – and the club and the other parents stood behind me. I wanted the players to know that personal responsibility is much more important than winning at all costs.

It is disheartening to see the equal pay disputes in North American women’s soccer in recent years. The United States women’s national team has won four World Cups and four Olympic gold medals, yet they have had to sue US soccer for proper compensation. Our team is now experiencing a similar heartbreaking moment. All of these players have put in the time and dedication and should be rewarded. Otherwise, what message are these sports organizations sending to young girls?

My own daughter became addicted to soccer watching Canada’s memorable 2012 Olympics game against USA. It was one of Christine Sinclair’s finest moments. When my daughter made it onto a competitive team, she chose Sinclair’s number 12, which she wore throughout her soccer career. She was also thrilled to meet Sinclair, Diana Matheson and Melissa Tancredi at various times as we traveled to Hamilton, Montreal, Toronto and our hometown of Ottawa to observe and support our women’s team.

I can imagine there are thousands of girls and women in this country who feel the same admiration for these athletes and their sport. Let’s not spoil their love of football by taking advantage of our women’s national team.

What else we think about:

The federal government recently announced a new initiative to help companies commercialize their research and protect their intellectual property. This is an excellent opportunity to develop a program that will allow STEM graduates to progress into IP without having to go to law school. Too many non-lawyers stumble into this highly rewarding profession with no clear course of study. As Canada will need more IP professionals in the future, I believe the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada should work with industry and law firms to develop a year-long course where STEM graduates can benefit from their education while mastering IP law to become qualified IP professionals. I was fortunate enough to do this kind of training in a law firm about 20 years ago and have never looked back. Let’s open this rewarding career path to more Canadians.

Marianne

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